Media mogul
Rupert Murdoch arrived at The Sun this morning after flying to Britain to control the fresh controversy engulfing his tabloid, and has confirmed a Sunday version of the newspaper will be launched ‘very soon’.

Rupert Murdoch reads The Sun as he heads to the newspaper’s Wapping HQ for crisis talks with staff this morning (Picture: AP)

The News Corporation chief informed employees in an email that The Sun on Sunday is on the horizon.

Mr Murdoch arrived at News International’s Wapping HQ for crisis talks with staff after touching down in a private plane at Luton Airport last night.

Ahead of his arrival, the mood in the Sun newsroom was said to be a mix of anticipation and anger.

Nick Jones, chairman of the News International Staff Association, the representative body which is expected to hold private talks with Murdoch today, told the Guardian: ‘Everyone is looking over their shoulder… The joke is if you get past 7am this Saturday we have jobs for another week.’

Since November, ten journalists have been arrested over claims of corrupt payments to police and officials for information.

There is anger at the paper that News Corporation’s Management Standards Committee (MSC) – formed to clean up the company following the phone hacking scandal – gave police the information that led to the arrests.

Tom Mockridge, chief executive of News International, the UK newspapers division of News Corp, told staff at the weekend that Mr Murdoch had personally told him of his ‘total commitment to continue to own and publish’ The Sun.

Five journalists from The Sun were arrested over alleged improper payments

Mr Murdoch is expected to offer further reassurances in a direct address to employees during his visit to the paper’s offices in Wapping.

Five Sun journalists – including the deputy editor, picture editor and chief reporter – were held for questioning by Scotland Yard officers on Saturday on suspicion of making improper payments to police and other public officials. They have all been bailed.

The latest arrests provoked criticism that the Metropolitan Police were being heavy-handed and that the MSC had identified some journalists’ confidential sources to detectives.

Trevor Kavanagh, associate editor of The Sun, which is Britain’s top-selling paper, said on Monday: ‘There is unease about the way some of the best journalists in Fleet Street have ended up being arrested on evidence which the MSC has handed to the police.’

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it had been approached by a group of Sun journalists and was exploring ways to support them.

Mr Murdoch arrived at his Mayfair home in the rear of a silver chauffeur-driven Range Rover with a selection of newspapers at his side.As the vehicle pulled into a private garage he smiled for waiting journalists.

Trevor Kavanagh said staff at The Sun had been treated like ‘an organised gang’ (Picture: Bruce Adams)